Am I aiming too high?Answered
Hi,
I am currently a junior and I want some advice for my aims of a top 20 university (Ivies, UCLA/Berekley, NYU, etc.)
For some background, I am based in CA, and I am Indian from a rich background (200k+ combied annual income). Without studying, I got a 1530 (750/780) on the SAT, and I plan to study for my next one in March (hopefully will get a better score). Additionally, my unweighted HS GPA is 3.84; unweighted college is 4.00 (regrets from freshman year; I plan to write about how all my B's were above 89% in addtl. info section). I plan to take a total of 9 APs, around a dozen college courses from a local comunity college, and 7-9 Honors Courses. I got a 5 on AP HuGeo, no others taken yet.
I am not part of any major competitions; here are my extracurriculars:
- Starting TSA (Tech student assc. competition) at my HS.
- SMAP Youth Club- Host community event, we did a 5K Community run that got into the community paper.
-700+ Volunteer hours, 200+ of which are from being hte Youth Lead for the Covid-19 Vaccine Program in my community, 75+hrs tutoring @ my HS.
-Life Scout, soon to be Eagle
- JV Water Polo 9,10,11
- JV Swim 9, 10; Var 11
- Math Competitor (AMC 12/AIME level). Helped to organize math tournaments for middle schoolers as well.
This is all I have off the top of my head. Am I too ambitious with my school list? Where should I be aiming with these stats? How can I improve these stats to look better/what can I do to increase my chances of getting into a T20? Thanks :D
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2 answers
Inorder to get into top universities you have to have something exceptionally unique about you. For example, winning the national championship for a sport in your age group. But your extracurriculars look pretty solid as well, maybe you'll get into a good UC. Colleges don't look for how many extracurriculars you have, they look for how passionate you are about one extracurricular. So my advice would be just to dive more deeply into the stuff you love and figure out a way you can impact the community around you.
-not coming from a professional :3
A few of my friends last year had similar applications to you. They usually received deferred or rejected. I think that waiting to take the AP classes doesn’t help chances, but I do think you show growth. You have to make sure your SAT/ACT scores are really good. I have a high 34 on the ACT and my letters have been hit or miss for colleges under 15% acceptance rates.
You should try to create a passion project for the subject you want to major in; apply for a bunch of internships and get in contact with your college professors to help with any research papers. Take Stanford Online CME courses if you need certification that you know your stuff.
You could join groups that go on medical mission trips (I went to Uganda; it was pretty fun), travel to help less fortunate communities to build wells or compost recyclers, or try to wiggle your way into a passion project if your friends have done anything.
Make sure your essay is intriguing and entertaining; mine was on tuberculosis.
Anyway, Ivy Reject schools are usually a lot more laid back than Ivy. I do think you have a chance so don't sweat it!
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Thank you so much! This is really useful... What could I do to academic-wise that is unqice? Would it have to be at some high-level research like RSI? Or can it be a bit less extreme?